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Hdac (Hyundai Digital Asset Company) has been whipping up interest in uses for blockchain technology in adverts shown through the World Cup 2018.

Hannah Williams Jul 09th 2018

South Korean IoT-blockchain startup Hdac (Hyundai Digital Asset Company) has captured the attention of the technology industry now. They have become, perhaps, the first blockchain company to advertise on TV, targeting a massive audience. Their ad telecast on the World Cup TV showed Hdac's vision of how a modern interconnected smart household will operate.

Hdac has used adverts during the World Cup shown on ITV and Eurosport as a way to demonstrate the potential capabilities of blockchain – a first of its kind in TV adverts.

The South Korean startup was founded in 2017 by Chung Dae-sun, the nephew of CEO Chung Mong-koo of the automotive company, Hyundai.

According to Hdac, its mission is to develop a frictionless experience for transactions using blockchain technology while also creating new ways that the tech can improve our everyday lives.

The advert, which lasts about 35 seconds, shows a family home where smart appliances are able to communicate with each other and operate using the capabilities of blockchain such as machine to machine transactions. It includes examples of how virtual payments are made throughout the house, all using blockchain tech.

However, that is not it for Hdac. The startup also aims to revolutionize the internet of things sector with its provision of distributed ledger technology (aka blockchain), which it believes will help to ensure transactions across several IoT devices will be made quick and easy.

The biggest challenge the IoT industry faces is the sheer volume of data generated by heterogeneous devices, and how to make sense of this data ocean. Hyundai Digital Asset Company advocates the power of distributed ledger technology (DLT) to tame this data and make it 'usable'. IoT contracts control access to the devices, help the communications between them, records all transactions on the ledger, and ensures anonymity.

There are many use cases for blockchain tech, and it has sparked the interest of a number of players from global banks to startups over the past year or so.

Although video calling is not a common use case for blockchain tech, there have been some examples of companies such as e-Chat, trialling video and voice calling capabilities in the form of a blockchain-based decentralised messaging and social network platform.

It seems Hdac, which raised an ICO of $258 million at the end of 2017, is entering the market with a range of smart home and maintenance technologies to power blockchain and IoT through innovative transactions.

The company has used the massive platform that is the World Cup to its advantage, as a way to display its plans to create what it calls a “more innovative future.”

However, success is not assured. In may 2018 the company’s mining pool suffered a hack which forced it to temporarily put a halt to withdrawals. It managed to escape with no liability as the mining pool was decentralised, Hdac said in a statement. Whether users will be sufficiently reassured to adopt its technology remains to be seen.